thoughts, inspiration, devotions and recipes from my journey in the far north

Exit Thanksgiving Enter Christmas… November 29, 2010

After being very disinterested in food for a couple of weeks (I was ill), I finally got my groove back and made several pumpkin themed baked goods. The pumpkin cranberry chocolate chip muffins was one of them.

The base of this recipe was someone else’s and did not include cranberries (but I think they add some ‘umph’ to the taste and to the whole beauty of this recipe). The orginal recipe made a good muffin but I was a little discouraged about the fact that too much of the muffin stuck to the muffin liners. So I decided to try to figure out how to keep more of the muffin connected to the muffin. The recipe below seems to be the right combination to make my experiment a success, from ingredients to baking temperature. It is essentially vegan, except for the chocolate (however, I used dark chocolate), and can be made with eggs if preferred.

Pumpkin Cranberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

3/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c canola oil

1/2 c coconut oil (softened) (found in health food stores)

2 flax eggs (2T ground flaxseed plus 6T water) or 2 eggs

1 can pumpkin puree

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1- 1 1/2 c chocolate chips or 100g dark chocolate chopped

1 1/2 c fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F or 190 degrees C.

Line muffin pan with muffin liners.

Combine sugar, oils, flax or real eggs. Add pumpkin. Mix well.

Combine flours, spices, baking soda and powder and salt. Add to wet ingredients in small amounts until all is incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips or chopped chocolate and the cranberries.